Producers: Butch Vig and Nirvana
Track listing: Smells Like Teen Spirit / In Bloom / Come as You Are / Breed / Lithium / Polly / Territorial Pissings / Drain You / Lounge Act / Stay Away / On a Plain / Something in the Way
January 11, 1992
2 weeks (nonconsecutive)
Punk rock, a genre that emerged from the streets of New York and London in the late ’70s, returning rock ‘n’ roll to its raw, rebellious roots, had a tremendous influence on music and fashion. Yet it failed to make a significant dent on the album chart, at least until Nirvana’s Nevermind.
Nirvana was born in December 1987 in Aberdeen, Washington, with the core of singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Chris Novoselic. After a series of lineup changes and gigs in the Seattle area, the band was signed to the up-and-coming independent label Sub Pop, which in 1989 released the group’s debut single, “Love Buzz,” and album, Bleach. After their first U.S. tour, Nirvana finally settled on a permanent lineup when Dave Grohl, formerly of the Washington, D.C., punk band Scream, signed on as drummer.
With their Sub Pop releases and live shows garnering a tremendous buzz, Nirvana became the subject of a fierce bidding war, which was won by Geffen in early 1991. In May, the band temporarily relocated to Los Angeles to record their major label debut with producer Butch Vig. The bulk of Nevermind was recorded at Sound City in Van Nuys, the same studio used to mix part of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
“We had no idea what was going to happen,” says Vig. “We thought we were just making another punk record.” Yet Vig did notice that Cobain had an uncanny knack with melody that separated him from other underground songwriters. “There was this song ‘About a Girl’ on Bleach, which was my favorite track, because it was the poppiest one. It has this really cool almost Beatle-esque kind of hook line right at the end of the chorus. When I heard some of the demos for Nevermind, I was blown away, because they were so poppy, even though the band was totally onslaught rockin’ when they played — it had a very hooky pop sense to it.”
The sessions were extremely loose. “We screwed around,” says Novoselic. “We would sleep in every day and then lay on the couch and play pinball all day and then we would stroll in and occasionally lay down a few tracks.”
It wasn’t the first time Nirvana had recorded with Vig. In 1990, the band recorded many of the songs that would be released on Nevermind at Vig’s Smart studio in Madison, Wisconsin. “We didn’t know what the future was with Sub Pop, and then we lost a drummer,” says Novoselic. “It was never the right time. But we saved all the good songs for Nevermind, like ‘Lithium,’ ‘In Bloom,’ and ‘Stay Away,’ which was called ‘Pay to Play’ back then.” One track from the Smart sessions, an acoustic ballad called “Polly,” which describes a rape from the rapist’s point of view, did make the album.
Yet the song that put Nevermind or top was “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” an anti-anthem that simultaneously mocks and celebrates the slacker generation’s apathy. Some said its monster riff resembled a punked-up version of Boston’s 1976 hit “More Than a Feeling.” A video clip of the track, which featured the band performing at a high school gym from hell, complete with moshing students and cheerleaders with uniforms bearing the symbol for anarchy, slammed into MTV’s Buzz Bin with radio also airing the rallying cry.
In one of the most significant and telling pop music happenings in the young decade, Nevermind hit Number One on Billboard’s album chart in its 14th week, knocking off the self-proclaimed King of Pop’s Dangerous. Rock ‘n’ roll would never be the same.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of January 11, 1992
1. Nevermind, Nirvana
2. Ropin’ the Wind, Garth Brooks
3. Too Legit to Quit, Hammer
4. Achtung Baby, U2
5. Dangerous, Michael Jackson